Roughly two months ago, viral footage emerged showing beagles shivering in captivity at a biomedical research center in Wisconsin, alongside activists who were tear-gassed attempting to save them. Photojournalists documented these dogs huddled together, their eyes meeting the camera and, by extension, us—the humans responsible for their plight. It is a sobering experience to meet their gaze and confront the severe suffering inflicted by one species on another. However, as argued by Thomas W. Laqueur in his recent publication, this confrontation is crucial.
Laqueur’s book, The Dog’s Gaze: A Visual History (2026), provides a comprehensive and approachable examination of the depiction of dogs in Western art, starting from the Palaeolithic era. The book features 250 vivid, full-color reproductions, supporting Laqueur’s concept of an “aesthetics of sociability.” He posits that dogs, due to their ability to see with us, possess a unique capability to transcend species boundaries in art and perhaps in reality as well.
What could have been a simple exploration of iconography evolves into a vital resource for understanding how dogs have been integral to visual culture throughout history. Laqueur applies his theory to both form and content, noting that in Vittore Carpaccio’s works, dogs often establish visual axes, such as the endearing puppy in “St. Augustine in His Study” (1501–1505). In Edwin Landseer’s poignant painting “The Old Shepherd’s Chief Mourner” (1837) and Antonio da Correggio’s “Ganymede Abducted by the Eagle” (1531–32), dogs alone bear witness to human anguish. Pierre-Auguste Renoir marks a social shift in “Madame Georges Charpentier and Her Children” (1878), where a patient Border Collie serves as a seat for a child, symbolizing the transition of dogs into integral family members rather than mere companions.
